


We Carry on IV - Asked and answered

by SSJandTechno



Series: We Carry On [4]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Cassandra de Rolo Needs a Hug, F/M, Just Vex in the bath, Mild Gore, Mild Sexual Content, None of these people is ever going to be normal, POV Percival "Percy" de Rolo III, POV Vex'ahlia (Critical Role), Percy is a pile of issues in a nice coat, Way less than the show
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:40:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29314215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SSJandTechno/pseuds/SSJandTechno
Summary: If you can be bothered, read the rest of the series first! This will make so much more sense, I promise.
Relationships: Cassandra de Rolo & Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III, Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III/Vex'ahlia
Series: We Carry On [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2020607
Comments: 16
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> If you can be bothered, read the rest of the series first! This will make so much more sense, I promise.

“It’s fine, Vex. We’ll manage. There’s only one of them this time, and we’re not expecting serious trade negotiations. If he wants to do that, we’ll tell him he has to wait until The Grandmistress comes back from hunting and keep him entertained until you do.”  
“For three days?” Vex asked Percy. “I’m sorry. I forget how much faster riders travel than carriage. I can still call the hunt off.”  
“Don’t.” Cass said, standing up. “Clearing the harpies is important, it’s infrastructure work.”  
“And, for what it’s worth,” Percy said, “I think young Bedevere is pushing his horses hard. I think he’s showing off.”  
This was the problem. The de Rolos, such as they were, had been expecting Bedevere Morholt Pelleas Hanserren to set off from Turst at new moon, which, apparently, he had done, but not by carriage as his brother had, rather by horse. Consequently, he was making better time than the de Rolos had expected and had spent the night in one of the nearby forest camps. The camp had sent a bird to give Whitestone some warning. Vex’ahlia was expected to be out hunting harpies.  
Vex drew a long breath. “If you’re sure.”  
“Go.” Cass repeated. “There’s only one of them.”  
“And doubtless it’s Cass he wants.” Percy said, almost resignedly. “Neither you nor I is a prospect for ‘ever closer union’, are we?”  
“Stop it.” Cass said. But she said it without the blushing embarrassment Vex would have expected of a girl being teased by her brother. 

Vex arrived at the hunt’s station to find that her hunters had already bought a near-dead pig. By the look of it, it was deformed from birth; knife thin and twisted. As they saw her approaching, Alf lifted the animal up to Cherry, who pulled it across her horse, ignoring the animal’s squeals. Cherry’s horse was too seasoned a beast to shy.  
“All twelve?” Vex asked.   
“All twelve, m’lady.” Cherry answered.  
“Then let’s be off.”   
While in the city, she used Trinket, because she could and it grew Trinket’s pride to be ridden by her so publicly. Once out of the city, she put Trinket in her necklace and flew like a witch. They were headed slightly further south this time. Mina and Lily had scouted out another harpy nest on the cliffs. A time would come when they would have to attack the nests directly; climb the cliffs or dare flight, but that would be dangerous, and would be easier if the nests had been worn down by years or months of attrition. So that was how they filled their summers, when hunting for food would stunt next year’s growth.

Percy, for one, was grateful that most of the castle seemed to believe that the Hanserrens were not going to attempt a massacre, so Bedevere’s coming was attended with much less fretting and crying than Hector and Alyssa’s had been. What Bedevere undoubtedly wanted was incompatible with massacre, in any case.   
What Bedevere wanted. Percy supposed that his feelings were to be expected. It was probably only natural. Vax had told him in no uncertain terms what would happen if Percy mistreated Vex. Vex, in turn, had been disparaging of her brother’s advances on Keyleth. Though Percy wasn’t sure Vex had threatened anyone with mortal harm in that instance. Maybe he should ask.   
The question really was how much of his discomfort was a brother’s natural protectiveness towards a younger sister, his only surviving sister, and how much of it was a sense that Cass was throwing herself into marriage for bad reasons. The Hanserrens were enthusiastic contract partners already, there was no immediate need to tie them down by marriage. Percy was reasonably confident Cass understood this intellectually, but he wasn’t sure she was acting on it.   
He did not need to rush. No matter what, he did not need to rush. Nothing irretrievable could happen for at least months. He would do better to hang back, be polite, but guarded, and let Bedevere show his hand first. And Cass, come to that. 

They rode two abreast, in near silence. Even this close to Whitestone, the less ridden paths were not always safe. Undead had emerged to trouble riders a few times. Never in very dangerous numbers, but there were still scars of Vecna here. Vex wondered idly if Vassalheim was so afflicted, or whether the sheer force of Holiness in that place counteracted it.   
The leaves overhead were thick. Vex could see that the eyes of her hunters, all full humans, were wide in the half dark. It would get lighter as the sun came up. This forest almost reminded her of Syngorn, it was so old. Only where trees had fallen did enough light reach the ground for other life to exist. This was a domain of birds. It would need felling to bring it back to life. 

Percy and Cass stood at the top of the steps as Bedevere Morholt Pelleas Hanserren jumped clear of his horse and let Jarett lead him up.  
“Bedevere Morholt Pelleas Hanserren.” Percy said calmly, meeting the younger man’s eye. “We welcome you to Whitestone.”  
Bedevere made a short, shallow bow. “Percival Frederickstein Von Mussel Klossowski de Rolo III, I presume.” Percy nodded. Bedevere had bothered to memorise his title properly. “And, lest I embarrass myself, is this..?”  
“Cassandra Johanna Von Mussel Klossowski de Rolo.” Percy supplied. Cass made the barest hint of a curtsey beside him.   
Bedevere drew a breath slowly. “And, as beautiful as my brother said she was, he could not adequately describe her.” Percy didn’t look at Cass to gauge her reaction. He tilted his head at Bedevere. He’d known before now what Bedevere was after. This was not a surprise. His sister was a woman and an heiress. Of course she would attract suit.   
The silence stretched for a moment.   
“Come in.” Percy said. “Refresh yourself from the road, and join us for lunch.”  
Bedevere went ahead of them. Percy caught Cass’s eye.  
“What?” She mouthed.


	2. Chapter 2

“No.” Vex barked. Alf unknocked his arrow, startled. The young stag bolted at the sudden voice. “Not yet. We remember where we saw him. We’d only have to carry him to the harpies and back. If we sight a stag on the way home tomorrow, then shoot at him. If you shoot at a doe, you carry her home on your own shoulders. Clear?”  
“Yes, m’lady.” Alf looked more than chastened.  
“Never without reason.” Vex said. “We shoot pests where we find them, we only shoot beasts we mean to eat if we can practically handle the bodies.”  
But this was country for deer. The slopes were too bare and steep to support many trees, loose scrub was the best cover here. A startler and hidden archers would be the way. Trinket made a wonderful startler.   
They had maybe an hour more with the horses before the sun was full on their backs and the ground was too steep for them. Two, and Trinket, stayed with the horses. Ten hunters began to climb in the sunset.

“It is such a shame that your lady wife is not able to join us for supper.” Bedevere said. “When do you expect her return?”  
“Late tomorrow, or early the day after.” Percy replied.  
“Is she often detained away by duty?”  
“Less in the summers.” Percy said. “As well you know, this isn’t good agricultural land, so keeping large amounts of stock isn’t practical. Like everyone else, we’ve been… shall we say ‘rattled’ a bit by recent years, but our need for food actually went up because of the dragons.”  
“We had several hundred refugees from Emon during The Cinder King’s occupation.” Cassandra said. “We went from under to over populated in a day. Housing and feeding the influx that first year was very hard: not enough land cleared for crops, not enough boats to fish much harder, and a near-total trade embargo. It has got easier, but a lot of the refugees chose to renovate abandoned homes here rather than trying to rebuild from ash in Emon, so we’re bigger than we were. As I’m sure you know well, increasing agricultural output takes time, so The Grey Hunt is important.”  
“I would love to ride out with them one day.” Bedevere said. “If I had only arrived a day or two earlier! I’ve told you already I’m a born horseman, I spend half of the harvest hunting boar each year, grim and frightening beasts though they are.”  
“I’m surprised you find the time in the harvest, your family’s trade being what it is.” Percy said. How direct of him. Almost rude. Almost accusing Bedevere of shirking his duties to hunt. It sounded like something Vex would say.  
Bedevere shrugged. “Well, until the tallies are in and the prices can be set for the year, it’s all labourers work, and that is not for me.”  
Cass made a noise between a cough and a laugh. “How often in the last weeks of harvest I wish I didn’t need to sleep. There aren’t enough hours in the day to get the work done.”  
Percy thought, but didn’t say, that that only showed that Cass needed to learn to delegate.   
“Then you work too hard, Lady Cassandra. Such toil will break your spirits and make you old before your years. You must learn to rest and revel.”  
Cass blinked. “That is an unaccustomed thought to me.”  
“Then perhaps you need a teacher.”

Vex hauled herself on to the standing and took the immovable rod out of her pocket.  
“Slack!” She called, then pulled on the rope around herself until she had enough free length to tie it firmly to the immovable rod. “Climb!”   
While ten hunters filed up to join her, Vex looked around. The little overhang above them would do well for cover, there was easily space for eleven of them to stand. The sick pig was in her necklace. The sun was nearly fully set now. She would be fine to hunt in the dark of the night, none of the others had her sight.  
Their plan had evolved a very little since its first form. Hunters were roped to the immovable rod now, not to each other, the woollen ear plugs were still the best they could do. Vex cast the pig out of her necklace, Alf roped its legs together and left it squealing on the ground.  
They waited.

There was a tap at the door.  
“Come.” Percy said, half way out of his waistcoat. Alice stepped in and closed the door behind herself. “Your charge isn’t here.”  
“I thought I’d ask if you wanted anything, m’lord.”  
Percy shook his head. “I’ll be fine, Alice. Goodnight.”  
Alice nodded. “Do you worry about her, when she’s away?”  
“Truthfully? No. Among the things I’ve seen her fight, a few harpies are nothing.”  
Alice curtseyed and left. Percy set about his cravat. Of course, it was only half true. He wanted her home, not only as his foil against Bedevere, but as one who read people so very well. When she’d fought dragons and gods, he’d been with her.

Vex shouted, though nobody could hear her, dropping Fenthras. She reached for a dagger to cut at the hands that were grasping her, lifting her. She felt the rope around her waist tighten and was suddenly pulled two ways. She gritted her teeth against the pain and stabbed the harpy who was lifting her inside the elbow. She dropped. Only just over six feet, but almost on top of Fenthras. She dropped her dagger and shot directly up at the one that had grabbed her. It shrieked and wheeled backwards. It would die. She took her eyes off it and shot another through the armpit. Three of her hunters were slack-jawed and staring. Vex kicked Surrin before she shot again. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Surrin stagger and come back to life.   
They were retreating. They’d thinned the flock so much that the survivors were bolting. Vex took a breath and let it go slowly. Five trees were trying to dig themselves in to the shelf of rock they were standing on. It had been bare before. She pulled the wool out of one ear, then the other.   
Silence. Only wind. The pig was gone. No hunters were. Vex let her breath go. Other hunters were taking their ear plugs out.   
“Well done. Let’s do heads. Is it still light enough for you to climb?”


	3. Chapter 3

“Percy.” Percy looked over his shoulder. Cass. She kept her voice low. “Absent yourself this morning. Leave The Hanserren to me.”  
Percy frowned. “Are you sure?”  
“I can handle him. It doesn’t take two of us. You had the vents plan you were working on.”  
Percy hesitated. He wanted to guard her, to protect her. But this was not a rational want. He had no right nor need to protect her from The Hanserren boy. He was only a mortal man, Percy was fairly sure. “Keep Trish with you, at least.”  
Cass tipped her head at him. “As my chaperone? To protect my virtue?”  
Percy coloured slightly.  
“As though you hadn’t bedded Vex before you married her.”  
Percy thought of saying that, the first time that had happened, they’d both more or less expected to die the day after, and there hadn’t seemed much point in keeping their distance after that. That wasn’t the only reason it was different though. “If you’re trying for a political match, it matters.”  
Cass smiled. “I will keep Trish. But what I mean to do, I’d prefer not to do under my brother’s eye.” She passed him.   
Percy buried his face in one hand, drew a deep breath, then followed her.

Vex flew beside her hunters, nearly flat to the broom, hair flying behind her. Her hands were ice. She should have brought gloves, even if only for her left hand. She would not pay it mind. She was watching for deer. If she saw a stag now, she would shoot him. She’d given the same permission to her hunters. The deer around Whitestone were not very wary. The Briarwoods had forbidden all but the highest ranking to hunt, which had added to the hunger.   
Cherry called for the hunt to slow down. Vex’s ‘mount’ didn’t tire, so it didn’t make sense for her to call pace. Vex sat up a little, wriggling her fingers in turn. They were hours out yet.   
After a few minutes, Cherry slowed the horses further, still the hunters did not speak. The harpy heads beside them would win them renown, stags would be extra coin. Vex wondered if it might be better if she didn’t shoot. Her elf’s eyes granted her such good sight that she would almost definitely see the deer first, it might be better to give the hunters a chance to –  
She heard a bowstring sing. She turned her head. A crash in the undergrowth. Mina was lowering her bow. The thing in the undergrowth was still moving, still trying to flee. Vex rose over her hunters and overtook Mina, who was still kicking her horse in to motion. She saw something brown moving through the thicket ahead of her. She heard it snorting. She heard it fall. Then she saw it. A young stag lying bleeding and kicking, deep in birch brush. Vex dropped down on to it and cut its throat, just as Mina reached her.   
“Where’s my arrow?” Mina asked.  
“Other flank, I think. Help me roll him over.” He was a young stag, probably only two or three. “Good shot.” Mina looked quizzically at her. “You must have had him in the chest, or he wouldn’t have died this fast. But I think that arrow might be gone.”

Percy had re-joined Cass and Bedevere for lunch, then gone back to trying to foresee problems with his rather ambitious anti-ice project. The Briarwoods had already tunnelled under much of the city, Vox Machina had done more. Percy’s conjecture was that these tunnels could be filled with fire fumes to heat the ground on certain major streets from beneath, so protect them from snow and ice, and keep them passable to large carts, and easier for horses, in the winter. He had no idea if such a thing had ever been tried before, he wondered if he might need a vent somewhere to avoid dead spaces, he had no idea if dead spaces might even arise with a vent.   
Cass had been smiling a lot at lunch. And laughing a lot. So had Bedevere. They seemed to be getting on rather well. Which Cass had wanted. She seemed predisposed towards Bedevere. She usually kept herself very guarded, which Percy understood. It had taken him a very long time to let anyone at all through his defences, and Cass’s ordeal had been much worse than his. But she seemed to be letting Bedevere in. Percy was worried that…  
He just didn’t want to see her hurt.   
And he did worry that repeatedly freezing and thawing over the heating tunnels might produce black ice, which would be worse than doing nothing at all.   
Scale models might be a useful step. He could cast metal pipes, linked in pattern, funnel steam in to them, and see if any pipes stayed cold.   
There was a tap at the door.  
“Come.”  
The door opened. Bedevere. Without Cass. Percy stood up.  
“Master Hanserren.”  
“Lord de Rolo.” Bedevere was breathing quickly. Percy felt a hand slide towards Manners. Jarett turned and faced in to the room, very still, very watchful. “Lord de Rolo, I must speak with you.”  
“Certainly.” Percy said. “Please sit.” He gestured to a chair.   
Bedevere Pelleas Hanserren flopped in to it. Jarett relaxed slightly. “Lord de Rolo it is exactly as I feared.” Percy frowned and waited for Bedevere to explain himself. “I came to Whitestone expecting to find The Lady Cassandra enchanting.” He jumped to his feet and faced Percy directly. “Instead I find myself helplessly in love with her, and I must beg your leave to court her. You and your wife are her only living kin.”  
Percy hoped that he was enough of a noble, and enough of a diplomat, to hide his shock. He wanted to ask what in the outer planes this boy was playing at. He’d only known Cassandra a day. He wanted to ask what he knew of his sister that he should love her. He wanted to ask what in the hells Cass had done to him.  
Percy did none of those things. He drew a slow breath and asked “Have you reason to believe that my sister returns your feelings?”  
Bedevere sighed. “You must know yourself how reserved women of her quality are, how fey and how… But I must believe that she at least believes she could love me in time; she said if I felt as I do, I should come to you without delay.”  
So Cass was at least partly responsible for this. Stench of the Hells! Why hadn’t she warned him? If she’d had even a thought of moving things this quickly, why hadn’t she said something to him, even a short note via a servant!  
He had to come up with some sort of answer. He couldn’t say no, not if Cass had put him up to this. To give a firm no at this moment would damage relations with The Hanserrens, potentially very badly, and embarrass Cass. To give a firm yes was to hand his sister to this stranger.  
It wasn’t marriage. It was permission to court.   
“I will give you your answer by noon tomorrow. Where is Cassandra?”  
“In the room facing over the gardens.”  
“Wait here. I am going to speak to her, alone.”

Vex got back on her broom. The paunched deer hung from Mina’s horse.  
“We’re in dashing distance.” She kicked off from the ground. “I for one want to get home. How fast can your horses run?”


	4. Chapter 4

Percy didn’t knock. He just opened the door. Trish jumped beside him. Cass was sitting on the bench seat against the window, looking out to the north, hugging her knees. She looked at him.  
“Cass.” Percy said, then realised he hadn’t planned what to say after that.   
Cass looked down, blushing slightly. “I think he likes me.”  
“Do you know what he just said to me?”  
Cass nodded.  
There was a brief silence. “What did you do to him, Cass? He only met you yesterday.”  
Percy saw the first flicker of a smile on Cass’s face. “Is it that hard to believe that maybe someone finds me attractive?” Percy did a doubletake. Cass turned to face him, put her feet on the floor and smoothed her skirts out. “I just… tried, Percival. That’s all. I’ve never done it before. I just tried to make him like me.” She took a breath. “Apparently it isn’t that hard.”  
Percy wanted to start to try to articulate to Cass that behaving entirely unlike herself to get a suitor to agree to spend the rest of his life with her was an astoundingly bad idea. But he couldn’t quite organise himself to.  
“How did you answer him?” Cass asked.   
“I told him I would by noon tomorrow. Forgive me for being wrong footed by this. I would have appreciated some warning.”  
“He came here to seek an ‘ever closer union between our families, Percy. What did you expect that to mean?”   
“There’s usually a little more ceremony to it than this.”  
“As though you know. Vesper hadn’t accepted the suit when…”  
Percy sighed. “What do you want me to say?”  
Cass blinked. “’Yes’. Even if he follows this through, I don’t have to accept him if it doesn’t seem advantageous.”

Alf and Cherry were hanging heads, Lily was tacking Cass’s exemption letter to the wall beside them, though Vex doubted it would be long before people started to recognise Harpy heads. It wasn’t such an impressive haul as last time. A lot of the bodies had fallen off the shelf they’d fought on.  
“To a vote on the stag.” She said. Her hunters looked round. “Sell him to a butcher and split coin or butcher him ourselves and split his flesh. Left hands for flesh, right for coin.”  
Vex counted. Either her hunters weren’t too keen on venison, or they felt coin poor today. “Very well, Cherry is in charge of finding a butcher.” Cherry was proving herself dependable. There might come a time when Vex needed a lieutenant. Cherry seemed to be suggesting herself. “We reconvene to discuss our next hunt in three days, in The Castle, at noon. I will provide lunch.”  
She turned Trinket homeward.

Alice was waiting just inside the main door.  
“Bath, m’lady?”  
“How did you know, Alice?”  
“You always do, m’lady, when you come back from hunting?”  
“No, how did you know I was coming?”  
“I told the guards to watch for The Hunt, and started the bath as soon as they told me.”  
“That was clever of you. Did The Hanserren boy turn up?”  
“Yes, m’lady, his lordship and her ladyship spent most of yesterday with him.”  
“How do things seem to be going?”  
“Not my place, m’lady.” Of course. Unladylike for her to ask, unservile for Alice to answer.   
“Where is he now?” A question of straight fact, Alice could answer.  
“His Lordship was in his study, last I knew, Master Hanserren was with Lady Cassandra.”  
“Alone with her?” That sounded like a good sign.   
“Well, Trish is staying close.” But not Percy. Vex would have expected him to guard his sister. 

Percy near enough ran up the stairs towards the baths. Alice was sitting in the corridor with a small brass tub of water and cloth.   
She started to her feet.  
“Vex?”  
She nodded, curtseyed, and pointed in a single motion. Percy burst through the door. He heard Vex startle slightly.  
“Vex, thank Pelor, I need to talk to-” She rose from the water like a nymph, hair heavy and streaming. Head, neck, shoulders –  
He checked himself. Not right now.  
“What happened?” She asked. “What on earth did The Hanserren boy do?”  
Percy sighed, and perched himself on the far edge of Vex’s bath. She’d propped herself up on her elbows. He blinked hard.   
“I’m not sure it’s all Bedevere’s fault…” It only took him a couple of minutes to explain the situation to her; Bedevere’s conduct yesterday, Cass asking this morning to be left alone with him, then Bedevere’s proclamation. She kept an impressively impassive face. “I wasn’t prepared for this, Vex.”  
“Do you know what Cass thinks?”  
“She told me to accept his suit on her behalf.”   
That did seem to take Vex aback. “Well, there’s no question then.” Percy tilted his head at her. “You say yes.”  
“And hand her off just like that?”  
“That’s not what he’s asking. He’s asking permission to court her, not to marry her, so that’s the permission you grant him: Permission to prove his worth and his mettle.” Vex flipped her legs under and rose up on her knees, so the water lapped at the top of her legs. Percy reminded himself to look at her face. She straightened. “Master Hanserren, I grant you leave to court my sister. I grant you leave to prove yourself worthy of the name we bear and of her as a wife. Prove to us that you can…” Vex’s demeanour flickered, Percy had to smile. “honour her as a woman and support her as a governor, I don’t know. You should definitely practice it before you go and say it to him.” She shuffled closer and dropped her hips on to her heels, so that the water rose up her chest. She took one of his hands in both of hers. “And, apart from anything else, darling, I know. I know how hard it is to watch her fall, and be fallen for. I honestly don’t know if it’s better or worse when you hardly know the one they fall for. I hated the thought of him with Keyleth for months.” They didn’t need to speak his name. “I never liked anyone he went with, even if I’d liked them before. I didn’t want him to be alone for ever, but I wanted him to need me. And I felt that when he had a girl at bay, he needed me less.”  
Percy sighed. “He has no idea what she is: how capable she is, what she’s survived…”  
“Then we give him permission to learn. Do you think I mourn Vax the less because I have you?” Percy looked down.


	5. Chapter 5

Percy strode, straight backed, in to the North facing sitting room. Cass and Bedevere both started a little.   
“Cassandra, please leave us.”  
Cass got to her feet and left, glancing over her shoulder at Bedevere, who looked after her with eyes that reminded Percy of Vax after Keyleth, two Winters Crests ago. Percy squared his shoulders.  
“Master Bedevere Morholt Pelleas Hanserren.” Bedevere stood. “I grant you leave to court my sister. I grant you leave to prove yourself worthy of the name we bear and to take a wife such a lady as she is.” Bedevere drew breath to speak, but Percy carried on. “Learn our customs, our history, learn why we are as we are, as Whitestone and de Rolos. Demonstrate to us stalwartness, sense, and wit, such that we may be confident that you will be an asset to This House all your life. And come to know my sister. Let your love for her be proven true by time and tide. Then, and only then, you may return to me and ask for her hand.”   
“Though hopefully with some sort of advanced warning next time.” Percy added silently. It took Bedevere a moment to respond, for which Percy was grateful. The speech had been mostly of Vex’s design, he’d refined it a little, and delivered it to his naked wife twice before he’d come down here. Vex’s logic had been that if Percy could do that with a straight face, he’d be able to convince Bedevere that he was collected in his views and firm in his stance.   
“I… yes.” Bedevere said eventually. “Yes.” He crossed the room to Percy and dropped to one knee, taking Percy’s right hand in both of his. “Yes, I will do all this and more if it will afford me this inestimable prize.”


End file.
